White accuses Liddell of going to rehab

Former UFC light heavyweight and current IFL fighter Vernon “Tiger” White recently did an interview with BloodyKnux.com. In the interview, White makes the claim that Chuck Liddell was in rehab leading up to his fight at UFC 71 against Quinton “Rampage” Jackson.

Here’s the excerpt where White makes his statement about a trip to rehab for Liddell:

A lot of people don’t understand is that I have a CAT scan that goes through my eye that shows where the finger entered my eye and where the bone was blown out under my eye socket. It cost $38 thousand dollars to fix the eye. I have a silicon implant in my eye that’s screwed down so my eye doesn’t fall down into my nasal cavity. As far as I’m concerned with all these idiots out there who don’t know what happened, they should keep their mouths shut until you know the facts.

Everyone was saying, ‘I didn’t see a thumb go in, I didn’t see this, I didn’t see that.’ Just because it wasn’t a thumb, it doesn’t mean a finger didn’t go into my eye. When you have interviews from other fighters stating that Chuck’s fingers have gone into their eyes. It doesn’t mean that he stuck his fingers in the eye, but with the way he punches, his knuckles go in people’s eyes. I can’t bad mouth Chuck. He just came off a hard loss. Chuck just got out of rehab, but I do have to say it was stupid for him to come out of rehab and fight Quinton the way he fought him. He should have fought a smarter fight. Quinton’s my boy, I love you, and hold that belt forever.

By rehab, does he mean for alcohol or drug addiction, or does he mean some sort of injury? It’s hard to say, but there’s no love loss between the two. White and Liddell had issues before they ever fought in the UFC. But that’s just the type of guy White apparently is as I’ve spoken to several fighters off the record and have heard a lot of negative things about him.

Also, remember Chuck’s messed up interview with the TV station in Dallas a few months back? When they ask Chuck who he’d like to fight, in addition to Tommy Morrison, I swear he also said Vernon White, which had me in stitches because White is so far from being a top-level fighter that it’s ridiculous.

If Chuck went to rehab for addiction, Vernon White would probably be one of the last people to know.

This is just me talking, and I totally agree with your assessment of VW’s charater, but the Liddell in rehab rumor has been around longer than Vernon coming out and saying it. I’ve never been to substantiate it though.

“I swear he also said Vernon White, which had me in stitches because White is so far from being a top-level fighter that it’s ridiculous.”

Eh, it’s not that ridiculous. White is not a top-tier fighter, but he’s also not a pushover. He’s lost more than he’s won, but he’s also continually fought the best without hesitation. Doing that would tarnish anyone’s record.

Many of White’s losses were very close. Go back and watch his fight with Horn at KOTC. He had Horn in trouble in almost every round. Not to mention he just rattled off a very nice submission victory of TUF 1 alumnus Sam Hoger.

Again, White is not a top-tier fighter. I agree with that assessment. But White is also not a joke, either.

Luke:
I respect your opinion and your work at BloodyElbow.com. I guess we’ll just agree to disagree. But I never called him a scrub as you basically insinuated in your blog post about my comments. I said he’s far from a top-level fighter and I’m sure most would agree with that assessment, just as you stated.

You don’t find it the least bit comical that during an interview where he’s asked who he’d like to fight next that Chuck Liddell mumbles the name of Vernon White? A guy that he beat about 4-5 years ago and hasn’t been a major player on the scene in quite some time when he could have called out guys like Silva or Shogun? Hell, call out Rashad Evans and Keith Jardine before you call out Vernon White.